Post by Keith on Aug 4, 2019 8:13:09 GMT -6

...and upon the earth distress of nations... (Luke 21:25b)

Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. (Zephaniah 3:8)

Post by Keith on Aug 5, 2019 7:30:57 GMT -6

Democrats aim their outrage at Trump after two mass shootings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two mass shootings that killed 29 people in Texas and Ohio reverberated across the U.S. political arena on Sunday, with some Democratic presidential candidates accusing President Donald Trump of stoking racial divisions while he said “hate has no place in our country.”

Dozens were also wounded Saturday and early Sunday in shootings within just 13 hours of each other in carnage that shocked a country that has become grimly accustomed to mass shootings and heightened concerns about domestic terrorism.

The first massacre occurred on Saturday morning in the heavily Hispanic border city of El Paso, where a gunman killed 20 people at a Walmart store before surrendering. Authorities in Texas said the rampage appeared to be a racially motivated hate crime and federal prosecutors are treating it as a case of domestic terrorism.

Post by Keith on Aug 6, 2019 6:41:28 GMT -6

Iran says it will further breach nuclear deal in one month unless Europeans act

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran told European powers on Monday it would further reduce compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal in about a month’s time if they were still failing to protect it from crippling U.S. sanctions, reimposed after Washington exited the deal.

European signatories to the deal have so far been helpless to prevent U.S. President Donald Trump trying to force Iran to accept stricter limits to its nuclear activity and regional behavior by strangling its vital oil trade.

Iran has threatened to block all energy exports out of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil traffic passes, if it is unable to sell oil as promised by the 2015 deal in exchange for curbing its uranium enrichment program.

Post by Duck on Aug 6, 2019 8:05:13 GMT -6

Iranian media reported on Sunday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had seized an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that Iran claimed was smuggling fuel for unnamed Arab states.

On July 4, British forces detained an Iranian oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar, on suspicion of violating an E.U. embargo on the sale of oil to Syria. On July 19, Iran’s IRGC seized an empty British-flagged oil tanker, the Stena Impero, en route from the UAE port of Fujairah to Saudi Arabia. Iranian spokesmen from across the Iranian political spectrum expressed pride in the seizure of the vessel and praised the IRGC for the operation.

Post by Keith on Aug 7, 2019 6:52:09 GMT -6

(Reuters) - A cluster of recent mass shootings that killed 36 people in California, Texas and Ohio has sparked renewed calls for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to prevent gun violence.

While Democrats want the Senate to interrupt its five-week summer recess and return to Washington to address the matter immediately, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has not acted on the request.

Instead, there will likely be moves to advance legislation when Congress returns from summer recess on Sept. 9.

Post by Keith on Aug 7, 2019 6:52:47 GMT -6

'We have a long way to go:' Descendants of first black Americans on race relations

HAMPTON, Va. (Reuters) - Four hundred years after the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived on the coast of Virginia, the descendants of one of the first black American families say race relations in the United States still have “a long way to go.”

The Tucker family, who trace their ancestry to the 1624 census of the then English colony of Virginia, has experienced every chapter of African-American history.

From captivity on ships to slavery on plantations, to the 1861-1865 U.S. Civil War waged over legal slavery, 20th century discrimination laws and lynchings, the civil rights struggle and to the Black Lives Matter movement, racial disparities course through life and politics in the United States.

Post by Keith on Aug 7, 2019 6:53:38 GMT -6

Iran asks U.N. chief to push back against U.S. sanctions on foreign minister

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to push back against the United States after it imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, describing the move as a “a dangerous precedent.”

In a letter to Guterres, Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi accused the United States of a “brazen violation of the fundamental principles of international law” and urged the international community to condemn the U.S. behavior.

“Coercing nations into complying with the United States’ illegal demands threatens multilateralism, as the foundation of international relations, and sets a dangerous precedent, paving the way for those who aspire to rather divide, not unite, nations,” he wrote.

Post by Keith on Aug 7, 2019 6:54:57 GMT -6

Iran's detention of UK-flagged tanker unacceptable: owner

LONDON (Reuters) - The continued detention of British-flagged tanker Stena Impero is “unacceptable and unjustifiable” and there are concerns for the welfare of the crew after 19 days in confinement, the vessel’s owner said on Tuesday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19 seized the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations. That came two weeks after Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accusing it of violating sanctions on Syria.

Post by Duck on Aug 7, 2019 7:21:04 GMT -6

Temple Institute Video Urges Jews to Wake Up and Smell the Incense

The Temple Institute, the center of research and preparation for the third Holy Temple, has released a powerful new video to awaken world Jewry and re-frame the traditional three-week period of mourning into one of preparation for the rebuilding of the Third Holy Temple.

According to the institute’s press release, “although millions of Jews worldwide will fast on the Ninth of Av (starting Saturday night, August 10, at dusk) and strictly adhere to the other halachic requirements of mourning the destruction of the two Holy Temples, for too many the concept of rebuilding the Temple is like a far-away dream. These are the people the Temple Institute wishes to awaken from their slumber.”

Post by Keith on Aug 8, 2019 5:48:43 GMT -6

Joaquin Castro outed his own donors in bid to shame Trump supporters

Trump donors whose names and employers were posted in a highly controversial tweet by Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro blasted the Texas congressman on Wednesday for what they described as a “ridiculous” stunt and, in interviews with Fox News, rejected his claim that they are “fueling a campaign of hate” against Hispanics.

One of those Trump donors even revealed he's also been a supporter of local Democratic lawmakers—including Castro himself.

Wayne Harwell, the owner of a local real estate development company whose name appeared on the list Castro shared on Monday night, told Fox News in a phone interview that he donated money to Castro’s congressional campaign. But he suggested that after Castro outed him in a bid to shame Trump supporters, he won't be supporting Castro anymore.

Post by Keith on Aug 8, 2019 6:28:16 GMT -6

U.S. immigration agents arrest 680 workers at Mississippi plants

(Reuters) - U.S. immigration authorities arrested nearly 700 people at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi on Wednesday in what federal officials said could be the largest worksite enforcement operation in a single state.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement they detained about 680 people who were working illegally at the plants. They said they also seized business records as part of a federal criminal investigation.

Some of those detained will be released for “humanitarian reasons” and required to appear in U.S. immigration court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi, which partnered with ICE, said in a statement. Others will be transported to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, it said.

Post by Keith on Aug 8, 2019 6:33:11 GMT -6

LOS ANGELES/CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Republican President Donald Trump of fueling the white supremacy beliefs blamed for several U.S. mass shootings, as Trump visited two cities where 31 people were killed in rampages last weekend.

“In both clear language and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation,” Biden, the former vice president, said in a speech in Burlington, Iowa.

Another contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, took up the themes of white nationalism and gun violence in a speech at the historically black South Carolina church where white supremacist Dylann Roof shot dead nine people in 2015.

Post by Duck on Aug 8, 2019 7:52:57 GMT -6

Guns, Mental Illness or Spiritual Deadness--Which is it?

Our hearts are inundated with sorrow and amazement as we hear the list of victims from both the El Paso and the Ohio shootings grow day by day. Then comes the relentless battering from the media with its long list of people to blame and possible reasons it all happened.

Casting these questions out is as random as the gunfire that cut down our citizens. It sways and provokes our thinking and casts aspersions on many people and institutions all the way up to the presidency. It rings of desperation and it breeds confusion.

In the approach of the election year, next comes the presidential and congressional hopefuls who politicize the shootings. Kamala Harris is a perfect example of this. She sent out an email citing the tragedies in El Paso and Dayton as a reason to send donations to help her get elected. Dems and liberals blame their opponents or the incumbent office holders and rather than making them look bad—they reveal their own lack of character.

Post by Duck on Aug 8, 2019 7:55:49 GMT -6

Pakistan expels Indian ambassador, cuts trade with Delhi

Responding to India’s withdrawal on Monday of autonomous privileges from the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistan’s Imran Khan government Thursday expelled India’s ambassador to Karachi, suspended its ambassadorial appointment to Delhi and told its army to remain vigilant. For three days the region has been under Indian lockdown with a curfew, a communications blackout and blocks on people and goods movements in and out of Kashmir. The poorer districts say they are short of food and money as the historic standoff between Karachi and Delhi over Kashmir threatens to erupt again.